Green Light with Chris Long - Lane Johnson’s Retirement, Falcons Dominate Saints & Kyle Long Talks NFL

Episode Date: October 7, 2026

Chris is joined by Kyle Long, one of the stars of NFL ON CBS, who returns to his former stomping grounds to share some NFL insights and stories from CBS plus answer a few mailbag questions. Chris opens the show with a recap of the Atlanta Falcons dominant showing on Monday Night Football against the New Orleans Saints. Chris then shares his thoughts on Lane Johnson's retirement, what Lane means to the city of Philadelphia and the Eagles, and what Lane's friendship means to Chris. Enjoy! (00:00:00) - NFL WK4 Review (00:01:27) - Falcons Defeat Saints on MNF (00:20:00) - Lane Johnson's Retirement (00:40:00) - Kyle Long! (00:41:11) - NFL on CBS (00:59:52) - NFL Storylines (01:20:16) - Mailbag Have some interesting takes, some codebreaks or just want to talk to the Green Light Crew? We want to hear from you. Send an email to the Green Light Mailbag presented by Zone Nicotine and give us your hottest takes, your biggest gripes and general thoughts. Day and night, the mailbag is open! [e-mail] With the return of the Layup Line, make sure to check out the playlist here: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/1olmCMKGMEyWwOKaT1Aah3?si=YP1-ffQ3T_yUDRnJRhDtOw Check out Green Light's ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠YouTube Channel⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, where you can catch all the latest GL action: Green Light with Chris Long: Subscribe and enjoy weekly content including podcasts, documentaries, live chats, celebrity interviews and more including hot news items, trending discussions from the NFL, MLB, NHL, NBA, NCAA are just a small part of what we will be sharing with you. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I think I'm getting suckered into this Falcons thing, dude. Maybe it's just the good feeling of getting two primetime games right with the team, but I like the team. It's hard not to like the team. My favorite player in the New York Giants not named Arvel Reese is Abdul Carter. Dude, easy. Hands down. The guy's a pressure generator.

He is a maniac. Who's the most jacked official now that Ed Hockley's out? Is it Lan Clark? Gotta be Lan Clark. Looks like he's on the P90. He was a fucking rock farmer that guy. guy, dude. He just grew up moving boulders for his dad. He's a big.

His brother, Ocean. They were just moving stones all the time. Welcome to the Greenlight podcast. I have Bowes in London. He left us here in the States. He's in London, shaking hands and kissing babies and eating dog shit food and watching the Eagles. Hopefully this week is better than last week. Today I got a special. guest instead of uh, Bo Sevis, we got Kyle Long front of the program. My brother, um, TV star.

He is, uh, he's, he's coming back to check on his people. Uh, he's, he's going to, he's going to join us for, for a while. We're going to shoot the shit, talk about CBS and, um, probably the Bears and some other stuff. I mean, like, I would say slow news day, but it's not. There's a lot to talk about. Monday night football. Um,

was pretty good. It was good for me personally. Falcons and Saints, I think the Falcons are going to be able to run the ball. Like, I think the Falcons can get on their edges. And, you know,

like I'm not saying I'm falling for the Pennix thing yet, but maybe with a really good play caller, who knows? And with a really good run game and Drake London, like, I don't know. So yeah,

as much I love the Saints and it wouldn't surprise me at all, like maybe the over, it feels like point. and maybe the Falcons. And Chris nailed the prediction on the Falcons Packers Thursday night game in week three. Thursday night time machine. Chris, Falcons 22, Packers 20.

It's just bad news bears in Green Bay right now, I think. And I think Big Pennix is going to come in and unlock this office. They haven't been in the red zone. They're going to win this game tonight. I don't not like Green Bay's offense a lot. It's so bad, dude. It's so bad. And Atlanta, quietest catch has got a lot of pressure with four.

I think I'm getting suckered into this Falcons thing, dude. You know, maybe it's just the good feeling of getting two primetime games right with the team. But I like the team. It's hard not to like the team. It's, hey, listen, they just beat the Packers who are, you know, they're on mushroom cloud watch. And they beat the Saints. But they did beat the Saints on Gleason night. Like, there's a lot of them.

motion in that building. The Saints had no run game. With A. Chan out, like, that's a big, that's a big deal. And then they lose a couple guys on defense, Ellis, who's huge to them on first and second down, and Gray Anderson, who's an edge setter for them, really good player. So they were compromised from an injury standpoint. The thing is, the Falcons fans will tell you, though, the Falcons are doing all this with their two young edge studs out and, you know, one of their ace corners out. Really, actually, their ace corner. and AJ Terrell. So there's a lot that the Falcons don't have right now.

And it's Pennix's second game on Monday night. And, you know, like second game was Stefansky. And I was, man, I was impressed. You know, sure, did I think the Falcons were going to win the game? Did I think, yeah, but did I think they were going to win by three, four scores, put up a 45 burger on the Saints on Steve Gleason night? Like, that to me, that says something. And the way Michael Pennix is playing right now says something.

I look at their offense, and they have kind of a couple superpowers, in my opinion. They have like a couple maybe more under the radar superpowers that you're not thinking about. And they also have some very obvious differentiating factors. Number one is Bajan Robinson. You know, I often call Jemir Gibbs the most dangerous, you know, more valuable non-quarterback in football. you know, but Jamir Gibbs is, I don't know if he's better in Bejan Robinson, honestly. You watch Bejan Robinson play like, you know, and I don't even know why we have to pick one, but they're both effectively positionless players.

You know, they're using Bejon Robinson out there in bunches and stacks. He's a chess piece. He's the guy, you leak out and sit him down in the hole and run a dig behind the linebackers because everybody's like, where's number seven? He's the guy that can take outside zone and it'll hit on the backside, one cut downhill, and then he's going to hit his head on the goalpost because he's got that much speed.

I mean, like, he's just so dangerous. And you saw that in, like, the third play of the game. You know, Chase Young gets up the field. He makes a cut. The three techniques, like, well, nobody else is going to make that cut. He couldn't. Surely he's not going to hit that. that hole at 100 miles an hour and take it. And you make one mistake with a running back like that

and it can be over for you. So number one, you have Bajon Robinson. And number two, you have a lefty quarterback. And, you know, like having that lefty quarterback is very unorthodox for that edge player, you know, right end, right outside linebacker defensive right, who's not used to having to honor a left-handed quarterback's play action, you know, when you got a great. You know, when you got a great team that can run outside zone. He have a mobile quarterback. I'm not saying he's like Mike Vic, but even with the injuries, he can move enough to change the launch point. It really puts teams in a bind. If you can run outside zone and you do it really well, and you've also got a quarterback who can boot out and hurt you with his legs, or pick up the

sticks on third down and medium, like, you know, that helps. And you watch some of the throws he made last night. Some of the throws he made in in the second quarter to Drake London. The ball, you want to talk about a piss missile? I mean, it's the touchdown he threw where he's got Chase Young in his face.

There's some balls he threw last night with velocity. And, you know, he's got that super unorthodox release, but he gets that ball out quick once it's time to get the ball out. The velocity on some of these throws is crazy. The throw to Dotson in the middle of the end zone off play action, I mean, he turns, he whips his head around, he's got Chase Young in his face, the quick release, the touch on that ball, when you look at the frames, it doesn't really make sense. I mean, the way he lofted that ball.

I talk about Cam Ward needing to be more of a passer, not just a thrower. And you know, I love Cam Ward. And I'm not out on Cam Ward. For people that don't know my take on Cam Ward, I love Cam Ward. I believe in the kid. Michael Penix has got both. He's got the touch to make a throw like that. And he also has that ball that looks like, you know,

the way the ball comes off Justin Herbert's hand. And I know I'm not saying Justin Herbert's a great player. What I'm saying, though, is that he throws the living shit out of a football. And it's the same thing with Michael Penix. You know, some of those throws to London is just really hard. And when you got a quarterback that can make all the throw, throws from an attacking different areas of the field standpoint, especially it throws outside the numbers. Like, your corners want to play off. Like, he can make the throws to the field. He can

throw an out to the field. He can throw a deep out to the field. Like, he has that kind of arm. So you have Bajon Robinson, you got a big quarterback. He's a lefty. There's great velocity on the ball. He throws. He looked good last night. You got a group that runs outside zone very well, right? And one thing you got to have when you run outside zone, I mean, it's nice to have great big tackles, but like really good guards, good guard play. Obviously, the right guard is an all-world guy. And having those guys really helps. And the thing that people might not pay attention to is who's coaching the offensive line. It's Bill Callahan. He's a legend, you know, and it shows up when you watch them working together up front. They look like a really well coach group.

they always kind of have, you know, since Bejohn Robinson got there, that was kind of a staple for them with that two-headed monster with Bejon and Alger. But I feel like having a Bill Callahan. And I'll say this, Kevin Stefansky kill me, but Kevin Stefansky is a very good offensive coach. And so when you have that kind of coaching staff, it's kind of a superpower. You know, in the run game, it shows up. And the other thing was it wasn't just outside zone. It wasn't just weak zone last night.

You know, they can run trap. They can run, they ran some gap scheme down in the low red. And they put this stuff on tape. They're going to have a full deck running the football. You look at their receiver room, and it's always been Drake London and some guys, right? If I'm nitpicking, maybe they don't go five deep at wide receiver. Like, maybe they don't have, like, a dynamic number. number two. But I really do think with this run game and if they can figure out how to use

Kyle Pitts, who is essentially positionless, and for a lot of people, they might say, well, he's positionless in a bad way. But I do think there have been some struggles and trying to figure out how to use them. You know, they used him in the eye formation as a fullback last night, leaked him out and play action. You know, they're going to line them up in the slot. You can line them up out wide. You can line them up, you know, at tight end. He's not a blocking tight end by any of the stretch of imagination, but they got the guys outside or, you know, on the end of the line of scrimmage with Werner and these guys, they got guys that can block. Werner is like a legitimate blocking tight end. So when you have that, you major an outside zone. You got guards that can

reach your threes, that can get up to the second level. You've got a veteran left tackle. he's not prime Jake Matthews, but he's a veteran left tackle. You've got tight ends that can block. You have a positionless tight end. You have a big quarterback with a big arm, and you have probably the most dangerous running back in football right now. That to me sounds like a winning formula. And I just happen to love the GM, Ian Yates Cunningham,

my former teammate at Virginia, and they're just getting started. and the wide receivers are going to block in this scheme, right? Like, Ian comes from Chicago. You know, some of this Ben Johnson stuff is going to rub off, right? And I'm excited to see how they go down the road and fill out that room. And the type of players, they bring in. Because I think schematically they're going to be sound and they have a lot of talent.

So where do I put the ceiling on Atlanta season? Like, I don't know. This happened fast, right? We wrote them off in part because they started the season with Tua playing quarterback. We knew at some point Michael Pennix would come back. I think some of the injuries defensively had you thinking maybe this in their year. But if you look at the NFC South right now, and we were riding over to the show on Monday, and Nolan and I are sitting in the car, and he said, gun to your head, who do you think wins the South at this point?

Haven't seen what you've seen through a couple games. and I'd only seen the one game that they, they, they, they, they, they, they, they, they, they, they, they, they're, they, they're, they're, they're in contention as well. And the falk, like, I think the falcons, like, I'm not going to write anybody but the bucks off in the south. They're on mushroom cloud watch. The Falcons have the highest upside to me because when you take into account that they also have a defensive coach in Jeff Ulbrick, who I trust as much as almost any coordinator in the game, certainly in the division, although Brandon Staley's done a nice job, and Averro's had some high highs, but low lows as well,

I think Albrek's done a really admirable job in most places he's been. Funny enough, he came up this week when Jim Mora was dog cussing the D.C. And the D.C. excused himself. And now he's not coaching anymore. He's not calling plays at Colorado State or whatever it is. That actually happened to Albrecht. Albrek and Mora got into it. There's an old video of them.

And I'm like, damn, like 11 years ago he was coaching under Mora at UCLA. He's had a really good run as a D.C. in the NFL. I'm a big fan of the guy. And I think you've got competent coordinators on both sides of the ball. You have talent defensively. Like that safety room between Watts, who was really good as a rookie, and Bates, who's just a fabulous veteran to have there. You've got the younger Terrell working his way into the rotation,

obviously losing AJ Terrell is a big deal. Hughes has not played well. I worry about their corners. I worry about teams like Carolina who can stress you in the passing game. How that matchup goes the second time, I have no idea. And it might come down to something like that for the division for them. And I don't want to put the cart before the horse, but you get the idea. The team can run the football.

They can stop the run. And they get pressure. You know, I talk about guys like Dorilus. I want to do a deep dive and give you the people a little bit of, you, you know, like an introduction into who a lot of these guys on their defense are, because I think they have some very underrated players on their defense, and they've been able to get pressure with four. You know, they also, like I said,

when you stop the running this league and run the football, I know that's an old school coach thing to say, I think you got a chance to beat a lot of teams. And I would have said they were a quarterback away, but the way Michael Pennislus looked immediately in two weeks was DeFanski. gets me excited. The first four weeks of the season, Falcons defense, third and success rate allowed,

ath in yards per play allowed, eighth and EPA per play allowed, 11th on third down. That's without two of their young studs, pass rushers, you invest a lot in that room, 11th in the red zone, second in pressure rate, six in quick pressure rate,

and they've got some ballplayers. So, listen, we'll talk more about the defense, but that offense can be hell to deal with, man. And I know Atlanta fans are starved for a winner. Probably wasn't sneaking up on a lot of people. You get Matt Ryan back in the building. You got a good GM. I think you got a good head coach.

As much as people wanted to bury him for what he did or didn't do in Cleveland. I'm going to give this team the benefit of the doubt. I think they're a good football team. they're tough football team. And things have to break right for them. But they can win that division. Listen, it's a four-game sample size. It's really a two-game sample size

with the quarterback in play. They've got plenty. You want to talk about a team with upside. They got some upside in the near future. So you know I love Carolina. You know I love Bryce. You know, I think he's playing as good as anybody in football. but there are some pieces missing on that Carolina team.

And I just think Atlanta's got a more well-rounded group. So if it were me right now, and I open my eyes tomorrow morning, and there's a guy standing at the foot of my bed with a pistol, and he said, you've got to pick. I'd probably pick the Falcons. And yes, that's super knee jerky. But I also happen to like the construction of the team.

And I think they're going in the right direction, even if they don't make the playoffs this year. If you're a Falcons fan, you've got to be excited about the future of your team. Michael Pennix has to stay healthy. That's the biggest one, right? So, fun to watch the Falcons. Am I out on Tyler Shuck?

Fuck, no, I'm not out on Tyler Shuck. Walk into that game, I knew what was going to happen in the game. Walking into that game, they got no run game. No run game. You know one of the props I hit? I went five for five Monday. I spread it out on the board.

I had Falcons. I had Falcons team total over. I had Falcons and a teaser with the over. I had Joanne Johnson over yards. And I had Shuck attempts. And thank God, Kellen Moore thought he was playing for a Super Bowl in the fourth quarter

because they're down 21 and Shuck's sitting at 37 past attempts. And they put them back in there. You know who else was in the game? Chris Olave. And I'm wondering if Kellan Moore has him on his fantasy team because there's no business having him in the game in the fourth quarter there.

And he leaves with an injury. Give me a jump scare. I'm sitting here with tuning that game out. And I hear Olave leaves with it, you know, he's banged up. I'm like, what the fuck is he still doing in the game? You can't make this shit up sometimes. Sometimes I think coaches need somebody to follow him around and be like, hey, coach, I think you forgot.

The guy with an injury history, our number one receiver, he's out on the field and work. we're down 24 points in the fourth quarter. Or like, hey, coach, remember what happened in Rio? Maybe we don't kick it out of bounds, Todd Munkin. Or, hey, coach,

maybe remind your kicker to kick it between the white lines, Coach McVeigh. I mean, like, I'm just saying, some of these head coaches, man, like some of the decisions that they do and don't make, like, in real time, I'm not blaming McVeigh. for the thicker kicker, not being able to kick the ball and bounce.

But you get the idea, like, why is Olavay in the game? Some shit, I think it's pretty simple. So, yeah, past defense. Falcons got to figure out the past defense. Like, you've got to figure out the corner situation if Terrell's down. Warning, this product contains nicotine. Nicotine is an addictive chemical underage sale prohibited. If you've ever played sports, you know the competition get pretty heated.

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This is the biggest news of the day. And I'm going to speak candidly about it as I can. Kyle's going to come on. Okay. Lane Johnson retired today. Did I expect him to retire this week? No, I didn't. Did I know what was going on? Yes. I, you know, I knew I knew he was having a hard time. As for the details of, you know, what's going on in his life and what led him to this decision. I think there's been speculation. I think there's, you know, some people have talked about it. I'm not particularly interested in filling people in on what's going on with one of my buddies, personal lives. Okay. So you're not going to hear what's happening here. That's for Lane.

Like, Lane's going to have an opportunity to fill people in on, you know, what led him to this decision. And I know it wasn't an easy decision to come to. I'll just say that. But I want to say this. Lane Johnson is a Hall of Famer. He should be first ballot if we're going off of how good the player was. And the impact he had on his franchise winning and the impact that his franchise winning had on the city and on the franchise. I mean, like, the Eagles had never won a Super Bowl before. and I was happy to be I was lucky to be a part of that ride the first one there's just some people

you owe it to and um you know when I got a chance to play in New England I owe Tom Brady a lot okay there's other guys on that roster for sure but like if I'm going to boil it down like I'll never forget what that ring meant to me and there's no chance we have it without a like that, right? And you can usually say that about the quarterback. I feel that same way about Nick Foles in a different way and that whole thing. But my reaction today was there are no parades in Philadelphia, if not for number 65. I can pretty much guarantee you that. I mean, there's since 2013 the eagles are 122.63 and 1 with lane Johnson playing tackle for them and 18 and 30 without he played you ready for this 11,917 snaps he gave up 295 pressures and that could be

the QB holding the ball too long. It could be anything. 33 sacks. I have a 10-year-old son. He knows Lane well. He was born in 2016. He's a great big kid. Like, he's basically a teenager.

You're like, where the fuck did the time go? So he's been around a while. Since 2016, when my 10-year-old son was born, who's a fully grown human being, Lane has played 4,997 pass snaps. Over that span, he's allowed only 15 sacks, blocking the highest paid, most decorated players on the planet with no help. You know why I get, like, when he gets compared to maybe some other right tackles,

why I think he got upset at times and maybe why I would take issue with it, Look at his island rate. He's Tom Hanksson cast away. No help needed. No one's coming. It's just lane. It's set it and forget it. Blocking the best players in the game.

15 sacks since 2016. I'd be curious what the time to sack was on those sacks. This is to say over the last 11 years, anytime a quarterback drop back for the Eagles, there was only a 0.3 chance the right tackle was going to get beat for a sack. I'll put it another way. Ryan Paganetti tweeted this today. He was talking about EPA.

And EPA goes over some people's heads, but it's a really good tool to understand, you know, context to contextualize a team or a unit's greatness or how bad a unit is or what a player adds to an offense, right? You know, he's spitting out the with and without EPA numbers, which I forget what they were. But he said to understand how ridiculous this difference in EPA is with Lane Johnson, without Lane Johnson, when he was on the field, they're the third best offense in the league by EPA.

And when he's not on the field, they're the 28th best offense. Guys, he's definitely one of the greatest Eagles of all time. I don't know that they ever had a better offensive lineman. I don't know that they ever had a better offensive lineman. I'm just telling you when Lane was in his prime, which it still looked like he was

you know, recently. You know, he's still great. I'd been in league 10, 11 years when I got to Philly and I was older for sure. But I knew what playing a great player felt like.

And every day in practice, I would marvel at how hard it was to beat him. And I didn't play a lot of guys like that, that I just, whatever you tried, didn't work. I don't know that I ever played anybody better. I really don't. And I, you know, I was a left end, so I, you know, I didn't get to go against Joe Thomas until I was, like, running, you know, three-man rushes out of odd fronts in New England, feeling like I'm left-handed over there. So I can't really say. But I put them on that level. You know, I really don't, I don't know what separates a Joe Thomas from Elaine Johnson. And I say that

with all due respect to Joe Thomas. I'm just picking one of the greatest of all time. I think Lane's as a past protector, fuck, it's in his era at right tackle, bar none. Okay. And the Eagles found him in a draft where it's pretty wild. Like, 2013 draft, Eric Fisher, Jokal, Dionne Jordan, Zikonza, Barcavius Mingo,

Jonathan Cooper, Tavon Austin, D. Milner, Chance Warmac, DJ Fluker, DJ Hayden. I just named the first 12, 13 picks. Lane was the diamond. He was a little gold nugget, dude. You know, so credit to Howie Roseman for drafting him. Credit to Jeff Stoutland for developing him. I think a lot of people wear these Super Bowl rings walking around wearing these Super Bowl rings with pride.

I'm one of them. You know, I'm so proud to have been a part of that team. I know Jeffrey Lurie's proud to be the owner of a team that's won twice in the last decade. To be the owner that brought a Super Bowl to Philly, I know Howie Roseman is proud to be the GM that constructed these rosters. I know Doug Peterson's proud. I know Nick Seriani's proud. I know Jalen Hertz is proud.

Carson Wentz, Nick Foles. These guys are champions. We're all champions, dude. There's no parades without Lane Johnson. I'm just telling you. and it wasn't just him being a great player, he's a great person. When I was a vet and I showed up in Philly, I'll never forget empty locker room. It's like in the summer I just signed or whatever.

I'm just kind of getting my bearings and it was like some sort of an off day and I was doing some maintenance and so I was just in the locker room. I hadn't met really anybody. The first person I really met was Lane. And this game definitely takes a lot out of you. And you have regrets, you have low moments, you have your body hurts, you know, like maybe you don't live as long for playing this game. I don't know.

But it has given me some of the best friends that you could ask for. The bond between two guys that went to the wall like that, it's just hard to replicate that outside of a football. locker room. And there's other lines of work where it's like that, right? Football's one of them. We do hard things together and you navigate hard things together. And Lane's been that friend for me. Lane's retiring because of his mental health struggles. He's been outward about that. And I'm proud of him for being bold enough to talk about these things. And not just now, like the last 10 years. I mean, he's had there's been a lot of tough moments and he's been he's been willing to share and I know that that for a lot of people

it probably makes you feel better knowing that it's not there's nothing wrong with you you know if the guy who's the best at his position in the world is having a hard time showing up for work because his mental health and he does the job that everybody in the city of philly Philadelphia would love to do, and it's hard for him, and everything's great in his life, then certainly there's nothing wrong with me. You know, it's humanizing, and I appreciate him for that. And I'm going to be square with you guys. I mean, like, I've had my struggles, and he's helped me. There have been times where I was going through shit, and I'd call, there's a couple people I call. You know, they always say when you're struggling, make sure you call a buddy.

I'm the worst at that. I never take my own advice. You know, I tell everybody, I call me at three in the morning. I'll pick up and I will. And I'll talk to you until fucking six in the morning. But then I'll go through something and I'll have a hard time reaching out to people. Lane has been that person for me on more than a couple occasions. And I just love him for that. and I appreciate him for that. And, you know, I can remember going up to, I can remember going up to Jersey to do inside the NFL. And like, every Monday night, if I could,

because Mount Laurel was right down the road, or wherever Lane lived. And I'd go see Lane. And I'd just go, we just sit on the porch. And, you know, I'd be having a hard time or whatever. And, you know, you're surrounded by friends and family and the whole thing, but like having that person, man. And it was just because he was brave enough to talk about his own shit.

It felt it made me feel like I could go to him. And here's a guy who's like a little brother to me. I think that speaks to how powerful using your voice is on something like that. And so I love Lane. I'm proud of Lane. And I know there's some people that probably would say it's not the best time. And I understand, you know, I understand the reaction, you know, for some of those people, like, it's not an easy thing for the offense. It's not an easy thing for the Eagles, and they're

dealing with a ton of shit right now. But this is the thing about somebody's mental health, man. Like, Lane was going to show up Sunday and do cardio. He didn't retire because he's afraid. He didn't retire because he's running from something. there's nothing to run from when you're the best on the planet. He would have showed up, like, in my wildest dreams, I'd love to be as good as Lane was. And so if he can't show up and be Lane, it has nothing to do with being afraid of the opposition.

It has nothing to do with being afraid of a tough day at work. it. Man, I say that to say, you just never know what's going on in somebody's head. Does that make sense? What I'm saying is it ain't like his job was hard for him. He's one of the most effortless talents I've ever seen. Not to say he didn't put tremendous effort in it. Nobody worked harder. That guy was constantly, constantly working. There's, he never seen it. He never said, had a barn in his backyard that was a weight room that he never left. We had the same trainer. Shout out to Gabe. And this dude literally made his craft his life. So I guess what I'm saying is if you're kind of like, huh, what's he running from? You know, what's he afraid of? Nothing.

Nothing at work. I mean, the guy would, the guy, and he's talked about this at length, He'd show up to the stadium and projectile vomit, having panic attacks in the stall, before he go out and, like, throw Khalil Mack around. Like, no one drew blood. I say that to say, this is way harder than football. And I know that people at home that go through shit can relate to that. And so, you know, I just hope that Lane can get the time he needs to be in a good place and spend time with his family and his parents.

And I'll let Lane speak to that whole thing. I'm not going to do it because it's not my story to tell, but I will tell you this. He was a great fucking teammate and a great friend. And he still is a great friend. And I think he's one of the best players ever play the game at his place. position, which is the most highly sought after position. That's how you start your team, a lot of people. And, you know, like you got him in 2013, and when he was good, you could set it and forget it. And so anybody who's got a ring, I just hope they know they don't have it

without Lane. And so, uh, to me, he's a Hall of Famer. And I, I cannot wait to sit there in that 100 degree weather with a million beers in me. I won't be able to wipe the smile off my face sitting in Canton in the fifth row or whatever. Hopefully the fifth row. I don't know. You'll be like me and Nate Gary and a couple people and I don't know. You name it. Everybody's going to be there because everybody loves Lane.

And so congratulations on an incredible career, Lane Johnson. And the Eagles are going to miss him for sure. And in the short term, the team's in a tough spot. without him. Teams in a very tough spot without him. So shout out to Lane, incredible career. Just wanted to talk about him for a little bit. For me, he's a gold jacket guy.

And he's a gold jacket dude. He's a gold jacket dude. Just a gentle giant, dude. You should see him around kids. It's like he's just one of those people. He's a special person. All right. From one special person,

the next special person. Kyle Long, my brother, he's also a gentle giant. Most of the time, and now he's on the CBS big show. So I can't wait to talk to him about all that and more. Here's Kyle Long. One thing I've learned since retiring has been, it's hard to keep your weight on. Like it just, we work so hard as NFL players. I was training, you know, hours a day just to keep my strength up, just to keep my muscle mass up to stay healthy. I don't have that kind of time anymore. I got three kids.

I got a couple jobs. I just don't have that kind of time anymore. And my body can't take the beating that he used to in the weight room. So, you know, to get the same amount out of workouts I used to do at 2X intensity, you need help. And for me, Create Gummies have been that little boost. You know, I started taking Create, and I really never took Creatine when I played. after I played, I started taking it and the easy use, obviously just being able to pop them in, you know, not have to mix a powder in a shaker, that sort of thing, which, as you all know, can be a pain.

Oh, where's my shaker? I got no, I got no clean shakers. Oh, no, I got nothing to mix it with. I got to pack shakers on the road when I travel. No, I'm not going to do that. I got my gummies. And I have noticed a big difference in the way I recover. the way I keep my muscle mass on.

I feel like at this point, and maybe this is just something I made up in my head, but I feel like I look as good as I looked when I played sometime. I'm almost 260 pounds. That was like almost my playing weight, and I'm leaner. And certainly I don't think I could take on a pulling guard, but I feel good. Like nobody's looking at me at the beach and being like,

what the f happened to that guy? nah not with create gummies they're like oh that guy still trains so uh definitely helps like keep the muscle mass on um keeps you looking feeling good and uh as important as anything is the cognitive benefits um you know so recovery cognitive benefits like keeping your muscle mass on the whole thing um and you know recovery takes longer my 40s than i used to for sure especially in the summer uh when i'm depleted dehydrated the whole thing. I'm slamming water and I'm eating I'm eating create gummies. And so you know, you think about training camp, I kind of wish training camp time. I kind of wish I was taking creating in training camp back when I played. You know, but it helps me now doing all the things

I'm doing in retirement. So better late than never. I am loving creatine and I'm loving create gummies. welcoming to the program. I'm not going to do this whole thing. What's up, Kyle? I'm good, bro. How are you? We haven't talked in so long.

Where have you been? I've been right here. As soon as I finish this interview, you know where I'm going to be. I'm going to be on the sticks over there. Busting your eyes at Madden. We haven't played a game in a while, dude. No, we haven't.

We haven't. We really put the GPU through a stress test when we play because there's so much intelligence on the field. They just don't know. what to do with it. They don't know what to do with it. They're like, man, these guys really, uh, these, these guys are a bunch of insolombardies, uh, with the sticks. Uh, I'm playing with the, the Niners a lot this year on. Yeah, you are. If you play with the Niners, you control Fred Warner and you kind of just, you, you, you lock down the middle of the field.

I run front side behind, you know, off of the puny backside double team. I like to get the, the, the capture on the front side, uh, with you know who. And, yeah, I mean, if you know what you're doing, a linebacker with the Niners, it's like having Lamar, if you know what you're doing on offense. It's just shouldn't be allowed. Well, we could talk Madden all day, but I know the people want to hear about CBS, dude. We talk every week. And, like, the first week, I watched the entire show out of, like, nervousness for you. Because it's just so hard for, you know, like, not to make you feel like little bro here, but I'm like, I've watched you grow up.

You know, I stood on the hill when you were in little. the league and you hit me a home run and I caught it with my hands and I was like that's my little brother like you're still my little brother dude I um it's just so hard it's it's like I woke up the morning you started out and I was like holy shit my brother is at a desk with Bill Cower I mean and Nate Burleson and Russell Wilson and the whole thing in J.B but like you're really doing what dad's done for 30 years and you're doing it on the highest level. the other network. It's how long to take for it to set in for you, dude? Well, I'm still figuring it out, right? I mean, I feel like I'm a rookie again. And I've been in the media since 2020 and

long before that when Jay Cutler would refuse to go to the podium, I would go up there and address the Bears fans, win, lose, or draw. And those conversations were difficult to have. the ones I'm having now are way more, way more, you know, doable, I would say. And you alluded to it, dude. I'm on the desk with James Brown, Bill Coward, Nate Burleson, and Russell Wilson. And I've known Russell since, you know, pre-puberty, we've known one another and competed against one another. I've had a ton of respect for him. And the thing that stood out to me, obviously, when he was younger, was the way he prepared.

The guy was unnatural at everything he did. and he respected the game. Bill Cower, you know, when you think about his football teams, what do you think about? You think about guys that are prepared, tough, old school kind of guys. And we were raised by a guy like that with our dad. So I feel like I have a family member there with Cowher, and I have to check myself whenever I'm delivering a point on the desk that I'm not only delivering points to Bill Cowher. Because like you said, I'm still your little brother.

sometimes I get caught up in like trying to impress the coach in any building I've ever been in. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And I'm like, Coach Gower, I'm right, right? Like, can you? And sometimes he will make fun of me about what I said and it's great. And sometimes he's like, that chin sticks out and you're like, ooh, I press the right button today where like I got him going. And J.B, I have to tell him that I'm not his little nephew anymore. And like, I'm a big dog now, J.B.

and like every week I have to remind him. I told him last week, I love you so much, bro. I love you so much. And you're the goat. But I know how to fly too now. Like don't waste an ounce of worry on me because I got you. You know, like that's what it's about. And we have fun on that desk, man.

It feels like playing for the Yankees, you know, the way that we throw it at JJ Watt and Jim Nance and they've got the blue blazers with the eye on it, the CBSI, it feels like vintage television. And it's not lost on me how few spots there are in our industry and in that time slot on Sundays. And I look at it like having a starting quarterback job in the NFL. Everybody in the world wants that job. And I know that I just happen to be the sack of meat that's sitting in it today.

And if I don't earn it and have fun and teach people something, that I'm doing it wrong. Well, I think you're doing a great job and the first time, I guess, thinking back now, it really, once I saw you in that beautiful espresso trench coat down on the sideline at like a playoff game or something like...

In Denver. In Denver, surrounded by TV legends and football legends and, you know, like you're dwarfing everybody. I'm just like... And Kirk Cousins was there? And Kirk Cousins, who's...

We were both rookies on the same day on the big show. Of course, they were like, hey, guys, you've never done this before. It's the playoffs. Would you like to come do this? And I'm like, I hope I don't forget my socks. Kirk definitely didn't forget his khakis. Once I saw you do that, though, I was like, oh, he's good. Like, and honestly, you know, I watch your show. The guys will tell you, like, we set up here, you know, when we're in the, you know how it is in the cave here. The situation room. The situation room, dude. I'm in here from New. to one in the morning with cowboy and Nolan.

And, you know, every week they come and, you know, stroll in around 1230 and I'm sitting there. I got like the five screens on and you're always on one of the screens. But I'm in autopilot as like a big brother because I know you're doing such a good job and you're surrounded by the right people. It's like you said, it's like you're a quarterback, you know, like everybody wants one of those seats,

but it really does matter what you have around you. And I think you got a great crew around you. I remember working with R.C. Channing, Jay, and Bill. That was the thing. Working with Bill for me was so fun because, you know, when you're working with Bill Cowher, it's the same thing, right? You're just like, I cannot believe I'm sitting here in the production meeting, bouncing things off a Hall of Fame coach.

It happened to be for me, my former coach, so I get to see how he's different from, from where he was a coach. So he was like my authority figure. And I also think like you and I, and this is just part of like having an alpha male dad, is like alpha males authority figures, like we, you know, coaches, like we want to respect those people

and we want to impress them. You know, like you just said, I want to impress coach cower. There's the same thing. We have position coaches, right? Well, maybe not always the position coaches. I mean, for me, I remember that. That's an alignment thing.

I don't want to let this guy down because, you know, the chips just continue to fall towards something bad. I mean, it's like that with Bill. I want Bill Cower, like I would imagine, you want to Bill Belichick. When something came out of your mouth for him to be like, that's one of my guys right there. Like, did you hear that? I care a lot. I care what Bill thinks. I care what your Bill thinks. I care what your bill thinks.

I care what the other guys think as well because they're like your peers and the whole thing. but like to have a coach, just that paternal thing. You know, you respond to having a strong, and that's the great thing about y'all said is like, you've got that one guy who's like old school. And then you got Nate who's wearing the shorts, but they're supepants and you're busted chops about it. But he also played with Randy Moss and Calvin Johnson.

And, like, and Nate was a bad boy, dude. People don't remember. In terms of the generations, he spans eras. And he looks so young and he's so young in mind and energy and wit that I forget sometimes that we're not the same age. And Black obviously doesn't crack because Nate looks fantastic. He looks awesome. He's like born in 1980, bro.

I'm like, you're unbelievable. Yeah. I mean, by the way, I don't know if they're spending much time putting powder on your forehead, but you look pretty good on screen too. They just look at me and they're like, yeah, get out there. How does it working with Russ? I mean, like for people who know Russ and I played against Russ, I mean, like every year, twice a year. So it's interesting with our families because for people that don't know,

Russ is from an hour down the road. And like he was a standout baseball player, football player. His brother was a bad boy on the diamond. Harrison, yeah. And we just kind of knew of each other and Kyle overlap more with Russ. But, you know, it's like we're going on a 20 plus year, like adjacent tracks thing with the longs and the, and Russell's family. And now seeing you guys being on the set together is crazy. Well, you know, it's funny because I'm a big FaceTime guy. You know that. Reed knows that in the back.

Shout out to Cowboy Reed. And, you know, I'll FaceTime mom and dad on Sunday or I'll face time dad and I'll make fun of his tie. And then he'll be like, let me see that quarterback. And he turns it to Russell. And Russell's like, oh, Big Howie. I don't like all them flowers, Big Howie. Like somebody's getting fired tomorrow.

And they just chirpid each other. Like they know one another. You know what I mean? Yeah. And Russell has love for our family. And I think one thing that shows up. is the trust. Russell knows that I've been entrusted with being part of the packaging that's going to introduce him to the world outside of a helmet. And obviously Russell's done a ton of

television stuff and media stuff. But I was thinking about this the other day, he's been the only guy on those things, you know, commercials and whether he gives keynote speeches or, you know, they write him a $20 million check at some tech company because Russell's brilliant. And those are the kind of crowds that he can draw. When he's working with me, sometimes I have to remind him like, I got you, bro. And he, I think naturally he's the quarterback. He was the point guard. He was a pitcher in a shortstop. He's always had the ball. And that's where he feels comfortable. I want him to feel comfortable going and getting open and knowing that I'm going to throw him a ball and he's going to have a corner jumper with nobody in his face. And he's going to be able to

hit the, who whatever dance he's going to do. Because that's, you know, we have trust, we have chemistry, we have fun. And I think that most of the time you're feeling out the people on your desk. Me and him showed up day one, dapped each other up. And we were like, let's go make this shit happen, bro. Let's go have fun. And let's let people see who we really are. And we get to see that on set hut every Tuesday at 2 o'clock on the NFL on CBS YouTube page.

and look, it's an hour-long talk show with no film. We are talking the whole time. If you want to know who Russell is, go watch that show. He's got opinions about all of the games, all the quarterbacks. He's played for dozens of coordinators, QB coaches, and he's played with half the quarterbacks in the National Football League. I'm locked into what he has to say. Now, he gets to share the ball with an alignment,

so I look at it from a little bit of a different perspective than him, And I think that offers the audience something cool. No, it is cool. There's not somebody texted me, actually. I'll tell you who it was. It was Beaumani Jones and a buddy of mine and somebody who I think is really good in the media space. One of the smartest guys. And I think he's got great taste and TV talent.

And he was like, hey, your brother is just doing a dynamite job. I'm paraphrasing. And, you know, his take was they don't put enough O. Lyman on these shows. You know, and I always think like, O. Lyman, different position groups have different personality traits. And I do think O'Lyman get kind of docked in the media, just walking through the door. But if you can get one that's really good at it,

the personality comes through. What is it about an O'Lyman's personality that works in the media? Well, I think similar to a tight end or similar to an edge rusher that's asked to do more than just rush the quarterback. I'm talking some of these P-droppers, some of these guys in fire zone you see in coverage. They see the game from a multitude of levels.

And as an offensive lineman, I'm part of the largest group on the football team in number and in size. And because of that, we were leadership as a group. And communication has to be rock solid. And I think that's the foundational piece for being an offensive Wyman is the ability to communicate under pressure, whether it's verbal or nonverbal. And I know when Nate has something to say because I'm watching his body language, just like I used to watch Nick Farrely to see if he was going to cross my face.

You guys read the room. Yeah, we read the room. I feel like we really do. And we have no problem getting out of the way and allowing the guys like the quarterbacks or the receivers to make dynamite points. We'll get us in position to score. I want you to score because, you know, maybe you'll toss me the ball and I can spike it and we can all celebrate. Yeah, I like that.

I like that a lot. Does it, do you ever feel, I'm only going to ask you one or two more things about this. Does it ever feel like with your delivery, do you ever look at like early 90s dad in the Fox show? I have a hard time doing that. I have a real hard time doing that because there are. so many things that dad has that you just can't teach. And I feel like it's like watching one of these guys with freaky ankle flexion or dynamite get off or an amazing understanding of how to get a quarterback down.

Dad was charming and he's brilliant and he doesn't like to go very long. And that's why he's great. And he's pretty much like an alignment, I would say, on television. He does TV like an O'Lignment does TV. And I think that's great. He's steak and potatoes and no bullshit. He laughs when he's supposed to laugh. He knows how to do it, man.

But I can't watch that because it's just different now, man. Everything's geared towards social media engagement. All the points we make are supposed to be in and out in 30 seconds or whatever it is. I feel like in that day and age, they could really talk it out. out, but that's not how we do things anymore, as you understand. Yeah, for sure. And you got to kind of get in where you fit in. And with how quick some of these hits are, you know, you may plan a 20-second bit

and you end up saying six seconds. And that's totally fine because, like, we're going to get them next series. We're going to get the ball again. That's the hard part for me. Like, when I've done a little bit of it, I just felt like, and you're really good at this. but I never want to be taken out of context and I never want to be misunderstood what I'm saying, especially about a player.

And I think that's the hard part or like a negative thing about a team or sometimes if you're trying to get in and out, your point has to be real boiled down. You can't bake a cake in five seconds. It's really difficult. You're trying to bake a Michelin cake and really you've got a little biscuit for them

It's like, I hope this covers what I'm trying to get covered. I hope you know what I'm getting at. And that's the, I think the hardest part is when you do have to be critical of a player, has there been or a team, has there been a moment yet with a unit or a player or a team where you're like, I had to be hard on this team or this player without trying to make it personal? Because that's the thing dad always talked about was like, hey, I don't want to make my criticisms personal. And me, it's really hard. We do a three-hour Monday show, which is just a shit show.

show. It's different than TV. And along the lines at some point, I would probably, and these guys will tell you, and you know this, like, after a show, I'll be like, damn, was that too negative about that player? Was that too personal? Did I go too hard? Yeah. Look, I mean, that's really dad's golden rule, right? And it's something that we try to follow. It's attack the play, not the player. None of these are personal indictments. I am guilty of talking to the sometimes as if I would talk to a rookie mini-camp room and I'd be like I'm trying to set I'm trying to set a precedent for what football is supposed to be and what offensive line is supposed to look like when in reality there's certain things that I'm just not privy to that happen in a building and you know for example Josh Simmons the left tackle for the Kansas City Chiefs well he he's on the roster he's been in and out of the lineup for the last two years for personal reasons. Now, there's a million things that I can come up with in my head that can paint him as a bad guy or a bad teammate or

maybe a good guy going through something. I just don't know. Now, my job is not to make something up and just go out there and say it. My job is to be like the Kansas City Chiefs have had to lean on Khalil Benson, an undrafted free agent who hasn't played much tackle. And they've had to, Obviously, they have the luxury of Kenneth Walker, but they've run the football more as a result of their lack of protection on the left-hand side. A guy like Josh Simmons would bring this offense to the next. I can't say that because I don't know why Josh Simmons is out. Yeah.

Okay? Yes. We dealt with this in the 2000s with Eric Barry, right? I mean, like, there were things about Eric Barry that none of us knew that they kept in-house. Now, the chiefs did it again with Kingsley Suamata Iya benching him before the game. And they put the OG Mike Calliendo in there. And people are calling for Andy's head. People are asking for, and he doesn't owe them shit.

Because you know what? If something happened in that locker room that they deemed unfitting of a Kansas City chief, Andy Heck, offensive lineman, then good. I hope they dropped the hammer. And you know who else supported that in the post-game press conference? It's Patrick Mahomes who stood up there after he got ragdolled a couple times at Allegiance Stadium, which he's 7 and O in, by the way. And he said, look, that's between him and coach.

And Mike Caliando did a great job. That's why he's here. And they have a tough defense. That's why I was on the ground a lot. I just think that covering stuff like this is really hard. Well, it's hard. Where it's hard is where you as an analyst sometimes know something to that maybe people don't. It's not your business to talk about it. And, you know, like, I know some people might say, well, your job as an analyst is to tell us exactly what you know. But there are going to be some things that you're not as fans going to know about your favorite team. And sometimes you do have to trust Andy Reid or whoever it is. So we'll start talking about some teams here. You brought up the chiefs. If I were to put, and I said this on Monday, an elite tier of teams in the AFC right now. I got three.

You want to guess who they are? Does one of them start with, does one of them sound like Maxen Hill? Does it rhyme with Hill, the Hills? The Maxen Hill, Hagwars? One of them is, yeah, one of them rhymes with that word. Okay. Yeah, one of them, I think to me, they're,

they played themselves in that group. I think the chiefs, the chiefs are won. I think the bills are won. As bad as their defense is. Boy, the bills are just a freaking. Yeah, Josh played like he was a little bit. What did you, would you say about the Josh Allen experience? There's like a roller coaster ride on meth.

And honestly, like, I meant it as a compliment at the time. Like, kind of like, man, like, that sounds fun. I've never done meth, but like it sounds fun, but also like terrifying, which it can be. And this was years ago. And then when I finally made. met Josh, I was like, man, I want to apologize. He's like, for what? I'm like, I called you a roller coaster ride on meth, man.

Like that didn't come across right. And he goes, that sounds pretty fun. So, so, I, um, but I, I think I, you know, it's like hard for me to, to, to, to, to, to leave them out of that group. And, and, and I think that, you know, like, I, I kind of jot it down. They got to figure out how to block game Jackus. That kid can play. That guy is the, uh, uh,

is the archetypical New England football player. We can just put him anywhere. What number does you wear? Every number. Yeah, he's good. What does he like to do? Everything. Everything.

He's more explosive in the pros than I saw in college. Now, I'm not some Mel Kuyper, but I look at a little bit of this D-Line tape. Okay, so I put the three teams as being, and that's not to say Cince couldn't end up in the bowl. It's not to say Baltimore couldn't end up in the bowl. And whoever else I'm leaving out, I'm leaving them out.

That's fine. But I think the best three teams in the AFC right now gun to my head are those three teams. Yeah, I mean, hey, look, Jacksonville does everything that, you know, like when you beat somebody in Madden, and then they show the important stuff at the end. It's like time of possession, first down, so first down, or third down percentage.

Reds, they are great at all that stuff. Yeah. Campanelli has a really fun defense. Not only that, they have true star power. And a guy who is like a great offensive tackle is a mute button. Shout out to Lane Johnson. They've got Travis Hunter over there. And Travis Hunter has busted out of the lower Earth orbit.

And he is now past the space trash. And he is working towards superstardom. We saw some shit last week that was like when we were kids. We used to see like Dion do crazy stuff. And it was like it looked easy at the time. Ho-hum. Travis does stuff physically. It's unbelievable.

That guy in the middle. He can tackle anything. I think the fact that they have two edge rushers that can get home and a rotation of guys inside and out that can get home makes that defense awesome. They stop the run. They're good on offense on third down. And in the red area, they're efficient, dude. So like, what more do you want from a football team?

And Liam Cohen is the same kind of psychopath that Ben Johnson is just with different seasoning. Like, those guys love winning. And I think they hate losing. more than they love winning. And the confidence Trevor's playing with, dude, Parker Washington, and I know I told you I'm on Ross St. Brown is my favorite player in the league. I'm also getting a Washington jersey.

That's an interesting conversation, favorite players in the league. Like not maybe best players in league, but favorite players in league. We do that one day. Parker, Washington definitely be one. He's on my fantasy team now. Luther Burden is up there for me, too. Yeah, Luther Burden's a beast. Luther burden's a beast.

You name a team. I'll name my favorite player on the team. Detroit Lions. I mean, it's hard to unseat Aidan Hutchinson as a former WDE, but I love me some Aleem McNeil. You know who I used to love was Amic Robertson, but he's now a Washington commander. Name another team.

I'm going to go with the Miami Dolphins. Ooh, I really like the rookie wide receiver. What the fuck is his name? They have like 12 rookies who are going to be. But they also have, I'll tell you, Brewer is a stud. Yes. Brewer's a stud. Paul's a stud. Prior looks good at guard. Paul's head is this long and this tall. He is so big. I was there last year watching the dolphins at Bears training camp and like they were just getting this big fella going. What number does he wear, Kyle? It's not a good number. Hold on a second. It's not a good number at all. It's like 60. 52. Not a good number.

two nuts in your mouth, Kyle. That's a good joke, Chris. Can we give the inception of this joke? Can we give the... This is good, Chris. This is really good. I'm going to give you credit. That was well played.

So I used to have a joke in the training room, a place in which I spent a lot of time. And I would always ask these defensive players, we had some Miami guys. I'd be like, Ray Lewis, best number 53 of all time. Of course, these guys would, And, you know, the trainers, they've heard me do this joke to like six rookie classes by now. And they're just rolling their eyes.

And I say, Ray Lewis, best number 53 of all time. They're like, he's 52. And I say, you can fit these two nuts in your mouth. And every single time, it's a winner. And I just got Gott on camera with a 52 joke. Well, it was so easy because honestly, I looked up his head. And then I was like, damn, I forgot he wears that ugly ass number. Giant head.

Who's your favorite player on the New York Giants? I have one. My favorite player in the New York Giants not named Arvel Reese is Abdul Carter. Dude, easy. Hands down. The guy's a pressure generator. He is a maniac. He is also a roller coaster on meth.

And the roller coaster goes up and down the offensive line and picks the easiest way to get in. Yeah, he's playing the piano, bro. Like dad used to say, he can go anywhere. He can loop from anywhere. He can end up anywhere. You can line up four people on one side. and they're all in different spots. And that's the thing with the Giants.

And we can talk about the Giants for a second, being that we have to cover them all the time. First and foremost, Jackson Dart is pissed about J.J. McCarthy being in New York. And I don't know if you've watched Cam Scataboo's press conference the other day. They asked him what he's off from. He's like, he looks good throwing it around in Scout team. He just seems salty. He just doesn't want.

He's like, yeah, you're not. I don't fuck with this guy. Bro, you ain't unseating bay. I don't care how many diamonds they put on you. You're not my man. But Chris, my point is this. They pick up, they pick up the flag. One guy drops the flag.

Burns, he drops the flag, and four guys step up and have big games. And, you know, I think about the secondary banks. They went at Banks, Harrison Jr. Got the pass interference, which maybe was, maybe wasn't. And they go out of him again. He makes it polite, bro. The Giants have a tough football team. And I think Harbaugh being there has,

it's instilled some real confidence in that group. Isn't it funny how, like, him leaving Baltimore seemed to energize Baltimore, but him arriving in New York seemed to be just what they needed. I also think their roster is going in the right direction. Like, I would put them squarely. I was trying to tear teams earlier for the fuck of it because everybody does that. And I didn't know what tier to put them in because you don't want to be disrespectful and say, hey, not this year because somehow they're three and one.

They're a bully and training, right? Yes, they're like a small bully. Yeah. Which is basically a bully in training is just a kid that gets getting bullied. Just a bad kid. Just a tough kid, essentially. So, but here's my question. We got to talk about the Bears, man.

You know, first off, I loved your idea on your show with Russ about Khalil Mack. The homecoming idea would be incredible. We've been mocking some trades. I was giving him some love on Monday. He doesn't play like he's 35. He doesn't rush like he's 35. and if they could fucking get Khalil Mack back to Chicago, it'd be right on time for him to ice people out around Halloween, dude.

You know the whole Halloween thing? Infamous Halloween, no contestant. He, you know, he was obviously a fan favorite. Everybody came to his house, and he had security to he was like, leave Mr. Mac alone. He's got to get some sleep. You know, Khalil Mac plays 80 snaps a game and plays his absolute nuts off, which is why the Bears fans loved him.

And I also think what people don't get to see with Khalil Mack is how maniacally he practices with the effort in which he comes off. So when the one offense is on the field going against Scott defense, he is over there rallying his troops for the frigging just defensive period. When that whistle blows, he sprits to the football that the EQ guy puts down. He's the first guy there. And then he goes on to put on a show and practice. And I'm sure he's doing the same thing in Los Angeles.

He's been productive. I think his physicality lends itself to longevity. I think his style of play is one that can show up in a big way in the winter months. I think that he's a guy that can have an immediate impact. If they're looking for a catalyst, you haven't heard the decibels go up like when Mr. Mack makes a play at Soldier Field. Dude, Khalil Mack, I mean, power age as well. It just does with rushers.

You know, you're always going to lose a step. You know, you're going to be a little less quick off the line, but that guy, he's just always had ungodly strength. I do think with the bears, you know, we talk about the ceiling. I'd put him in that category of very dangerous. You know, I don't know if I'd put them in the elite category yet. They got to, listen, I thought they were, it looked like the greatest show on turf week one. I also, if I was Carolina, would want to light that tape on fire defense.

I mean, it was some of the worst football I've seen played. You come back week two, you see a very good defense, a familiar division foe that's always going to be a little bit of a rock fight relative to the rest of them. And then Caleb gets hurt. And my concern about the team, if I have any, and I think it's answered in, you know, the way you're thinking about it is like they could use another rusher, although I really like Booker and I like sweat. They're the best third down defense in the NFL right now, but they need a guy who can get home.

They need a guy who can get home. They also just played the Philadelphia Eagles last week, which is not a great thing. And they played Dome Gino outside. Definitely a good third down unit right now, statistically. It's a young season. And I didn't like the way the corners came out of the gate, admittedly. I also think that the teams they played on third down,

like when you look at numbers, they played the current form Philadelphia Eagles. They played the Minnesota Vikings who were winning without a quarterback in the rain. and they played Dome Gino outside in a game where they ran 30 plays. You know, so I'm not saying, bro, and this is the problem. That's why I say bring back, bro. Some of this stuff is sugar-coded, right?

I mean. I also think the corners, hey, listen, I think the corners will play better as the year goes on. I just, Dennis Allen did such a good job last year of elevating a group that I didn't think was overly talented. Can you do that two years in a row? I have no questions or concerns about the offense. I think the offense can be, yeah, as you put it, clearing the space trash. They're into orbit.

But I do worry about the defense. Listen, you play Chicago as a rusher. It's the last team, as a defensive end, as an edge player, be the last team on the planet that I'd want to play in crunch time because Caleb's impossible to get down. if you can beat a guy like darnel right, which he's a hell of a player, then you're going to have to contend with getting him down.

The way he exits the pockets sometimes, I haven't seen anybody I do it like him. And the other thing is everything on the backside of hard zone action away, you're in a bind. You're in a big-time bind. You know, your coaches are telling you, rush, crush, close. I don't want any air between you and the tackle's ass.

You've got to stay high because Caleb could get out. But Caleb's going to hide the ball, and all of a sudden he's going to be screaming at you because he's going to be throwing a BB down the field. And the other thing is, like, good on the bear's finding guys like Khalif Raymond. I mean, they've tinkered with the offense and somehow made it better. So I wonder what you think the ceiling is, and maybe the question's been answered of you having any concerns. Maybe not, but the pass rush a little bit. Look, I mean, the concerns are very real. they have invested in some guys that haven't had the production that they would like.

Obviously, they go get a guy like Grady Jarrett, and he's on the back nine and maybe like with a handout for the clubhouse at this point. But you watch them against the Eagles in that first half, and there's very real concerns about some of the log roll action I saw from some of those deal I've been getting rolled up like a carpet. And I know you watch the same thing. And that's my concern. Like you can manufacture a. rush as long as you can cover on the back end. Your concerns about coverage are pretty real. And they get Kyler Gordon back in the lineup. And he's going to be a big ad in that pressure game for Dennis Allen. He looks to be healthy. But as far as a rusher goes, you need somebody to go in there when you're rushing four that can get home. I love Al Harris. I love his secondary

room, they take the football away, dude. And if you're not going to get home and you're not going to, you know, do all the things you're supposed to do on defense, at least take the ball away. And that's what they do. Well, I mean, the takeaways have got to be part of it for sure. And that division is, listen, that's the wackiest division in football right now. Because I think the, I think the lions, you know, Brian Branch coming back will be big. You know, I don't know what he's going to look like off in Achilles. He can't fix the whole problem on the back end. But I think if their back end gets solved, they're really dangerous. I think Minnesota, and this is one of the mailbag questions, but I'll hit it right now. I said this on Monday. At what point do you say, hey, COC's been here through a million iterations of quarterbacks? You kind of seen this window come and go.

The GM gets fired. Why are you not doing everything you can to find a quarterback this year? I know they found Kyler, and it's early. And, you know, week one, he got hurt and the whole thing. It hasn't looked great. I would not let it linger until, November. I would go get Mac Jones. Like that team's too good and the window's been at least partially open and the defense is too dominant not to not to try. And I don't know what you think

about that in Minnesota. I'm not trying to aggregate your clip. No, yeah. But in my opinion, that's what they should do at some point if the quarterback play doesn't improve. They have a roster that's good enough to go win, dude. You and I know that. But your car, If it's got 24-inch rims, if it's got, you know, if it's lifted four inches, if it's got a CB radio on it, it doesn't matter if your spark plug is, you know, got some shit on it. And right now, the spark plug is the faulty spark plug is that quarterback. Now, I'm in the camp that says, Kyler Murray, I've seen it happen.

I've seen it done before. Stick to the process. Continue to win football games. I mean, look, they're in as good a spot as they can be, considering circumstances. because I was there week one, and Kyler went out. All these concussions are different, bro. They're all different, and they take time.

And Kyler's got to see a couple go in, just like a basketball player dealing with a slump. Shit, we saw Drake May have some big throws this past weekend. So I'm not counting Kyler Muriel yet. When is the trade deadline? When is the, when can we get into acquiring people? What is it, week nine? So, I mean, look.

We got some time, bro. We got a month. Yeah. And there's some fun trades to mock out. But Mac Jones, I'm not mad at Mac Jones. No, Mac Joe. Here's the thing about Mac Jones. I used to hate Mac Jones because Mac Jones used to, who?

Mac Jones used to slide and try to kick people in the dick. And he was, you know, he was, he was always playing the victim. But as times, as time's gone on, I really like Mac Jones. You know, he really is funny as hell. he's probably a really hilarious dude. And when, at least when he's been in Shanney's offense, I think he's been the second best quarterback that Shanney's had. I think Brock Perthes won. Shany left him coming out, right? But Garapolo, Garopolo got him to the Super Bowl. Mac Jones, I'm watching Mack Jones last year against the Rams. I'm like, who? Yeah. And, and so,

you know, I know it's a, everything with a quarterback is surroundings coordinator, but like, KOC's a hell of a play caller. And when Justin Jefferson gets back and you've got Addison and you've got a pretty good offensive line and you got Hawkinson. She put Case Keenham up there, bro. Case Keenom's a dog. Case Keenom's a dog. And I thought that game plan was brilliant.

And I was very happy for Case Keenum. I think a lot of people think I go to bed crying and sucking my thumb when the Eagles lose. Listen, my one buddy, I know they still have buddies on the team, but the one guy still talked to those on the team is no longer on the team. So as of today. That's true. So I, you know, like, I really can watch a game and say, hey, man, like, they got the Eagles number that night.

I thought that game plan was brilliant. So, okay, mailbag, buddy. Well, first off, what are you going to be for Halloween? It's funny because I was at work today and I got some pictures of my daughters that you guys will not see, but I got some pictures of my daughters in, like, costumes. I'm like, wait, what fucking month is it? Football season is a time machine, bro. And you forget how quickly it comes up on you.

I got to figure out what I'm going to be for Halloween. And also, where do you stand on costumes during the podcast? I'm thinking about maybe Russell and I dressing up as something for a set hut. Do you have any mailbag ideas for me and Russell to get dressed on? Fucking lethal weapon. That's what every black guy, white guy duo could just go lethal weapon, dude. You think we can't pull off rush hour? You could do rush hour for sure.

Who's Jackie Chan? I'll be Jackie Jay. That's pretty good. I see it. I absolutely see it. No, I mean, like, I love, like, this is half the reason I'm a podcaster so that I can dress up like two or three times for Halloween. Yeah. I have the going, taking the kids trick-or-treating, a costume, and I have like the Monday show costume and the Wednesday show costume.

It's awesome. I wonder what Nate's going to be this year. What do you think Nate is going to be? A crawfish? Nate is the type of guy who does like a very traditional Halloween costume. Like a nun. I'm like, I'm like, what? So wait, you're a nun?

Like, what's the joke? Like, is there some like play on words? You're a devout Catholic. He's like, no, man, what you mean? I'm a nun. Maybe I'll be like a surgeon. Nate's going to be like an airplane pilot, dude. Nate is a pilot.

Wait, you're going to be a surgeon? Construction worker, security guard. Unbelievable. All right, so here we go with the mailbag. Best wingman teammate you ever had. Best wingman teammate I ever had. Jordan Mills was a rookie right tackle that came into the league out of Napoleonville, Louisiana. He went to Louisiana Tech.

we were rookies together. I was a first rounder. He was a seventh rounder. We started every game together as rookies. And, you know, come hell or high water, that man had my back. And I'll never forget Jordan Mills and the time we spent together. That's my wingman. Jordan Mills, he's a great dude.

Yeah, I knew he'd be on the short list. I mean, for me, it's fairly obvious. I've been a wingman late in my career. actually Fletcher Cox called me tonight on the way to Wayland's baseball practice and I you know every time I see Fletch I smile ear to ear because that dude extended my career by you know two years I mean he just he was the best so I was his wingman

okay uh it was so easy I said this to him today like I have to remind him all the time you know how fucking easy my job was I just look to see if I see some green in the B gap and if so I rap underneath wherever you want to be a big dog good and violent and mean he was. And old school he was. Old school.

Like the shit you used to hear about Deacon Jones and mean Joe Green. That was the shit I was dealing with Fletcher Cox, bro. And he wasn't doing anything dirty. He was just like a motherfucker, man. He was a dog. And listen, I love Fletch and I was his wingman. But I would say wingman for me, true wingman, William Hayes. And you probably know that.

I mean, like Will was, I thought we was cool, Kyle. We was just in Vegas, Kyle. I thought we was cool, Kyle. What happened? You don't want to talk to me no more, Kyle? Oh, that fucking fight, dude. I'll never forget you after somehow you didn't get ejected, standing over there in the huddle and you're fucking steaming.

And I'm mad at you because now, not for beating up Will, because like I you know that's his problem but I didn't even get him good I didn't like I didn't get to taste the first course I was like staring at a big old platter of ribs yeah I was just ready but the fun the I'm like man I got these 40 people in town for the Kyle Chris bowl and I got to take them all out to dinner and they're going to be all in a bad mood because you can't fucking keep it together I kept saying to you FedEx you said that FedEx is going to be a motherfucker on Wednesday and I was like what is he talking about my trainer, Will Rogers, was like getting me water.

He was like, you're going to get fined for that. I was like, oh, that's what he meant. Okay. So, yeah, Will was the best and continues to be a great friend. You know, I, if I need to talk to somebody and I'm having a bad day or bad, I call Will. He's just, and it's a great thing about having a wingman. And everybody should have a wingman. Bobby Massey, Bobby Massey was my other one.

That was the other one. That was the other one. I thought you were going to say. Bobby Massey and I grew up playing football against one another, and I hated that motherfucker because he was so big and strong. And he used to just crush all my friends. He went to the Lynchburg Christian Academy, ended up going to Ole Miss. But we didn't, we weren't teammates at the beginning of our career. But at the end of our career, he came to Chicago. That was my right tackle. We lived together. He's a good old Virginia boy. And he is an amazing, amazing dad and husband.

He's fantastic. His wife was on Real Housewives of Potomac, I believe. believe it was. And Bobby is such a don't give a fuck country. Like, I don't have social media that he was like the favorite husband on the show. Everybody was like, this guy's a dream. I'm like, yes, Bobby's the man. No wonder. Massey's the man. And yeah, Lynchburg guy. So, but, but the second one is, saw some internet folks arguing that since coaches and players cuss refs out all the time, refs should be allowed to match that energy. What say y'all? And obviously it stems from the Trey McBride incident and then the one that happened in Minnesota with the other official and those guys got suspended. I don't disagree. I don't disagree with them being disciplined at all. But

here's the thing that people miss about this when you try to make a, you know, I just don't think it's analogous. I said this online today. A player cussing out an official, an official cussing out a player, totally different. And the reason is, if a player cusses out an official, I'm not saying it's good. I'm not saying their job isn't thankless or super hard. I'm the first one that's always like, the NFL is a rigged guys. Take off the fucking tinfoil hat and give these guys some slack. The biggest, fastest, most physical athletes on the planet are moving a million miles an hour. They're going to miss calls. But when an official cusses at a player or personally comes at a player, it casts doubt on every call he makes the rest of the game. God forbid, three plays later,

Trey McBride is called for OPI. Every knuckle-dragging, mouth-breathing NFL fan that thinks that T.J. Hawkinson went down because he had the under on his props or something inside the five-yard line the other night is going to be saying the NFL's fixed. You know, these officials have it out for a player. you know they're supposed to maintain an emotionless state of being and that's because they're arbiters they're arbiters it's like when you drop your when you drop your four-year-old off at pre-k and you know that shit's going to happen that's why you give them an extra diaper because sometimes shit comes out of their butt and you give them extra food and you give them an extra set of clothes and you know what regardless of what happens what's the teacher supposed to do just maintain

maintain this. You know what I'm saying? Like, that's what the official is supposed to be like. If you show up to school and your four-year-old's getting chirped at by the teacher, that's a different conversation. One is expected and one is not expected. That's really the way I would say it. Yes.

I mean, it's just not, listen, should players give officials some slack? Yes, you can also get penalized twice in the game for a personal foul and be ejected. So there are pathways to players being disciplined for, being dicks to officials. I also thought, like, looking at it, the Trey McBride thing was a really bad look. The other guy just needs to cool as jets, bro. The other guy was embarrassed.

He was embarrassed. He fell over. He got embarrassed. I will say this. There's a lot of stress on these officials. When I see a guy like Land Clark making calls out there, there's a lot of stress on these officials to look jacked and look healthy out there, like, you know, can you imagine being in a foot locker, Jersey,

like that, a really tight-fitting fan lock and Clark out there looking like a monolith. He is just fucking. He's jacked. Stone, who's the most jacked official now that Ed Hockley's out is. God be, he got to be Land Clark.

64 years old, bro. Looks like he's on the P90s. He was a fucking rock farmer that guy, dude. He just grew up moving boulders for his dad. He's amazing. His brother, Ocean. They were just moving stones all the time. I can't, bro.

Famous NFL officials. Oh, Gene Serator. Jerome Boger. You remember Jerome Boger? Yeah, Jerome Boger. Oh, gee. Great voice, Jerome Boger. Yes. Did an official ever talk smack to you? Yes. Yes.

I had one, too. Yeah, tell me about it. So you do your stories while I find my official. Well, I don't want to snitch on the exact official that... I might snitch on this... But this guy back in 2011 said bitch to me. He like... He said, shut up, bitch or something like that. At least he was right.

Yeah, right, exactly. I was at the moment. I was bitching at him. Dude, I got a holding call on me. I turned to the ref and I was like, that's fucking bullshit. And he was like, watch your language. I'm going to tell you your dad raised you better than that. And I was like, well, he ain't fucking here today, brother.

Yeah, don't bring my fucking dad into it. I remember being so pissed. Like, oh. That sucks, dude. Yeah, this guy, he, you know, he said the B word. That was crazy. And I looked around like, is anybody going to do anything about this? Like, they didn't have any cameras back then.

Yeah, I was like, mom, dad, dad. Um, all right, that's a good one. Uh, challenge of objectively analyzing a team you played for. what is it dude that is hard and it's something that i haven't really done a good job of here at the end you know at the beginning of my career in the media i really leaned on the fact that i'm a bear blah blah blah blah blah you know i said we a lot i talk about the bears like they're the bears people ask me who i thought was going to win the nfc north the beginning of the season and i didn't say the bears like that's okay you know what i'm saying yeah now i hope that

people have an understanding that I have a job to do on a national level that obviously my fandom of Chicago still exists, but I have to like those officials, maintain neutrality and just call it how I see it. It's hard, man. And what I've learned about like doing a podcast that does like every team is every fan expects you to hit their team, especially when you like, and they all have like a little man's complex. I don't mean this to be belittling.

I'm just saying like sometimes they don't think about the fact that they're, they're not the only team. And, you know, their team is the Titans. Yeah, like, hey, man, like, okay,

in your interactions, who has the chillest fans that you're like, you know what? Teams not that important right now. They know it's not important. They're not self-important. For me, I like Falcons fans a lot.

Now, the Falcons are, I talked about them in the open. Falcons are about to be more important than they've been in a couple years. But talk about a team in need of a spark plug, and, you know, they may be able to run without one if Bejohn gets a football quarterback. But honestly, the Jaguars are a team that if you give them love, if you really shine a light on them. And obviously, there's going to be a lot of light shine out of here now. But they were like, people are like, hey, this is awesome.

Did you see this? Somebody said this about our team. It's like, that's awesome. Instead of like, you know, I'm going to say it, the Kansas City Chiefs fans for having been very supportive of Patrick Mahomes and somebody who has tried to report on the Kansas City Chiefs a lot, I get a lot of hell for some of the things I say about the Chiefs. And that's okay. And that's just the way it is. I'm going through it right now because the Eagles are in shambles. And some Eagles fans, I'm not saying all by any stretch of the imagination.

because it's always the loudest, most obnoxious people in the room that, unfortunately, you respond to. It's human nature. But they just don't want to hear it, you know, sometimes. And, you know, like, as a former player, you know, when you talk about the team in any negative light, you're going to get aggregated more. You're going to get clipped more. And I don't, like, I know that there's a lot of dudes in the media that really like that. These guys will tell you, the last thing I want to do is end up clipped. I don't want, I'll, I'll sit on socials that we have about the Eagles and I say, don't post them.

I want the fans to come to the show and hear the whole fucking segment. Nothing drives me crazier than that. And I probably shouldn't say that because now I'm going to get a clip. But I don't desire going viral on, you know what I mean? And that can be the hard part. When you talk about your former team, everything you say gets twisted and weighted so much more. So, and then the whole thing for me, Kyle, is having played for the Rams and the Eagles, there gets to be this, oh, you hate the Rams.

Who do you like now? Well, no, but here's what, there are Rams fans that think I hate the Rams. Kyle, tell people what you think I think of the Rams. Am I mad? They cut me? I think that, Chris, all of your formative years happened in St. Louis, wearing gold and blue, yellow and blue. So it's weird.

It's just hard. I grew up a Rams fan. Yeah, it's like not something you can just have to be even harder than playing for the team. You can't like divorce a team because I mean, look, they went from St. Louis to L.A. You know what I'm saying? It's a different team.

It's a different team. It's a different coach. It's a different everything. It's just hard for people to understand that. Yeah, that's hard for people to understand. It's just like if you were a L.A. Ram fan and then the L.A. Raiders came to town. And you were like, hey, you know, the Raiders are in town.

I guess we're going to. And dude, I understand it's the same team, but, but, you know, it's the same franchise and the whole thing. But it is, it is different. So those are my challenges talking about my old team. Like, you know, I think the cool thing about the Bears is, man, you got to play in a place. You know, Philly, I got to see what that was like at the end of my career.

Like, you played in a place like Philly for eight years and were a stud there. And it's so cool to see you now be able to, like, talk about the game on the highest level and be like the Bears guy. Who? What other Bears guys are there on desks? Well, I think in terms of like the Sunday national show, there's not many, but I think the unique thing like Philadelphia with Chicago is that there's so many former guys that are doing it.

And it's not just the former guys that played. It's dudes, you know what I mean? Like Olin Crutes, who I have the utmost respect. for is a guy that I've listened to and continue to listen to for Chicago Bears coverage. He's somebody that gives it honest. Patrick Manley, who was a long snapper. Great dude. Legend.

What a man he is. He does a fantastic job. Lance Briggs is on there on the postgame shows, and his point of view is awesome. But, like, I take a tremendous amount of pride in being the offensive alignment on the desk. And just like when I watch Andrew Whitworth on Thursday nights on Prime, I'm like, you know what? Thank God it's one of us up there because we just love this stuff, man. I got one more for you. Last one.

NFL stadium traditions rank in order of coolest, you know, people throughout renegade in Pittsburgh. You know, there's the in New Orleans. I know they do something, but the thing that always, the yin-yang twins song that they play, when it gets really loud there to stand up and get crunk, that when you lose a game at the Superdome, like you'll be laying in bed that night when you get home and you'll hear that song. The other one that you hear is like, and I know you hate the Packers. I just want to bang on your drum all day. Oh, no.

Don't, shh, do no, go. Pack, go. But that feels like it's like mid-drive. You hear the, when they score, they go, da-da-da-da. Oh, yeah, I know, I know, I know. And I would just be like,

oh, my God, make it stop. If you played on the St. Louis Rams in 2011, and you went to Green Bay. I got to experience that, like, campus energy. And you're getting just carved up by Aaron Rogers. and your linebackers are all white guys. And shout out James Laurinitis, but we also, we had too many,

I told Flage, I was like, bro, you got too many white linebackers. And you go to Green Bay, and they're just, it's every, bro, we can't get off the field. And I got warned, like James Hall, my OG was like, man, wait till you go to that fucking,

wait to go to that fucking Packer Stadium, man. All you got here is do, don't, sh, don't, no, go. Go, back, go. And by the end of the game, I was like, shut the fuck up already my favorite one is

at Soldier Field obviously when they sing Bear Down Chicago Bears it's a celebratory fun song I have good feelings about that song there's certain places that you've gone to like Minnesota and that skull chant I have good memories because in 2018 we went to US Bank Stadium

and we ran them right out of the gym and we knocked them out of the playoff contention so I like the Skoll chant a lot and that stadium's awesome look I fucking hated playing in Detroit I couldn't even tell you what song they played whether it was some bullshit kid rock or fucking Eminem song and I was like this place is hell on earth in terms of being an offensive lineman because it was like Nick Fairley and Domiton Sue Willie Young like you name it they were coming for you and the crowd matched the persona of that Jim Schwartz defense.

Willie Young. Hook him Willie, dude. Dude, he used to six foot eight used to sack the fuck out of somebody and then and pull in like a monster five pound pass. Now he leads the league in shirtless fishing picks on Instagram. He's, he's catching catfish and apparently. I got to find the thing. He's the man.

Willie Young is so fucking funny. Big smile, infectious smile. great guy but one of the other ones i just remember Seattle awful i was talking to russell about this on the pod today they give the tickets to the people that are in the immediate tunnel when you go to walk out like the worst version of the seahawks fans sit right there and they do it intentionally i think they fucking give them tickets there was this guy dude every year for nine years or eight years or he's awful dude this guy it's the you'd be walking

out and he'd be hanging over the right side. Yes. And we used to get into it every fucking, not into it, but like I'd have something to say to him. He'd have something to say to me. And Kyle, we never won there. You know, we would lose 12-7, as you know, because you were watching the games. And, you know, he would just always be talking some shit on the way out. My eighth year, you know, I'm a shell of myself.

I'm injured. I'm going to get cut. We finally beat him there. on the way out, I stopped and me and my guy had a really good moment. We talked for maybe three minutes and we buried the hatchet. So I know the exact guy you're talking about.

I don't know his name, but isn't that funny? If I ever see him, we're burying no hatchets, brother. Isn't that funny, though, that you remember him, the single guy, dude? He was like, hey, I got something to tell you today. I'm like, fuck, can we just run out on the

field already and there's the one guy in the suit that's like two more minutes and I'm like you got to get me out of this tunnel you'd have to wait all right I got a good here's the best the best tradition I think renegades the best song when you get into a stadium like and the guys from the original Steelers team that played that song thought the song was called umama and they'll be like they got to play umama who said that bro it's like this is real this is real Really? The motherfuckers didn't know who Sticks was? No, bro. So you're telling me, like, Lynn Swan didn't know who Sticks was?

No, I think this was in the, I think this was the first group to really start playing it was like, when it became a thing was like Cowers Group. Oh, okay, okay. Yeah, well, yeah. Which is like the early 2000s, right? That's when they sort of bring it. So this is interesting. As you look at the renegade thing, Pittsburgh, the terrible towels, Kyle? Yeah. Have you heard the stuff about the curse? Because it's real. Okay, let me, here.

You ready for this? The terrible towel? Brother, it's real. Can I tell you? Okay. We'll go backwards. 2003. The Jags beat Pittsburgh.

Okay, they got to 6 and 2. Do you remember they were very good for half the year? Douggy P was there. Wingard, the wafty, picked him off, called them tiny towels, like mocked their tiny towels. Trevor Lawrence called them little yellow towels. Okay, so they were six and two. They were hot as fish grease, Kyle. They finished the season three and six. They missed the

playoffs. The season ended with a loss to the Titans. And that put the Steelers in the playoffs. Okay, that's 2023. 2025, more recently, the Chargers stepped in it. Their stupid fucking social media team that does a really cool preseason videos, but it's getting wisconsin. too cute now with it. They posted like a terrible towel meme, and they kind of shit on the towel. The next week, the Jags got curb stomped by, or the Chargers got curbstop by the Jags. Remember, they got beat by 30. And the Chargers haven't been the same ever since.

They got to the playoffs, but they just haven't been the same. Okay? And do you remember last year, the Baltimore mayor wiped his butt figuratively with a terrible towel ahead of the decisive Pittsburgh Baltimore Baltimore? Baltimore game that ended with Tyler Loop missing his first kick inside the 50 all year. It goes back to 2008, Kyle, the Titans 13 and 2, taking the number one seed. Lendale White stomped on the towel, Bullock wiped his foot on it, evidently cursed, blew his nose on the towel. Dudes were doing unspeakable things to the towel.

It goes back further than that. I think it does. They lost their divisional game, and then the next year, this is crazy. They lost their divisional game with the number one seed, which is kind of a Titans thing to do, it seems like. The next year, sorry Ryan Tannehill, the next year they returned almost everybody, 20 and 22 starters, and they started 0 and 6.

They all signed a terrible towel. I got to ask William Hayes about this and sent it to a Pittsburgh charity asking for the curse to be lifted. They won the next five games. Yin's got to chill out with these tiles, man. these fucking towels. Oh, my Kyle. Florida Panthers mascot.

Kyle, Florida Panthers. We're talking hockey. Blue is no. Stanley C. Panther with the towel. They were up to O playing Pittsburgh with six minutes left in the game. They ended up losing three to an overtime in the playoffs. Because Stanley C. Panther is going to fuck around. T.J. Housmanzada.

Okay. T.J. Hushmanzada. What year would this have been? Like, 0.3. I don't know, bro. So T.J. Hushmanzada apparently. They got that man on the speakeasy, though. They wiped him.

They wiped, he wiped his cleats with the towel essentially and said like, you know, who'd at or whatever, who did? And Bill Cowher was in the locker room. And essentially like, he's like, they're disrespecting our towels. And then they went out. You don't do that, dude. You don't do that, dude. You don't do that, bro.

The terrible towel is the best tradition. I mean, maybe there's better ones I'm not thinking of. But like to me, anything where people are like, yo, that might actually be like a Ouija board kind of situation, dude. Like there's, there's my non-favorian tradition is Jackson Darts love affair with the blue tent. We should do a whole thing on the next time you come on. Non-traditional traditions. Yeah.

Non-appreciated traditions. Oh, jumping through tables. Jumping through tables is good. I think it's a bit played out, like taking your shirt off on television. There's a couple things that, you know, they make their way into the mainstream, and everybody wants to do it. Every show that comes through jumps through a fucking table. Dressing like Mike Dicca, we get it.

He was a coach once. You want to make me watch your pregame show, put one of your talent in a barrel and set them off in Niagara Falls. Yeah, dude. That'd be awesome. All right. Well, we're going to need a bigger barrel for you, buddy. And keep up the good work.

I'll see you on my TV, I'm sure. This was fun, buddy. I'll see you guys soon. Thanks for having me see long, and we'll talk to you in week six, week five. Thanks for coming through for your boy.